The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid MP, gave a spending review. Despite insisting that the Tory’s nine years of austerity were over, the Government failed to invest in our public services. The spending pledges announced are less than a third of the £47 billion of cuts the Lib-Dem/Coalition and then the Conservative Governments have voted through since 2010. The spending announcements are for one year only and are not consolidated into departmental budgets for the future.

More than half of the £1.8 billion pledged for the NHS is not new money and the £1 billion for social care comes nowhere near to reversing the £7 billion of cuts since 2010. Councils still face a £2.6 billion gap for social care this year alone. The Chancellor also offered nothing for social security, where more cuts are still to come, and failed to adequately respond to Parliament’s declaration of a Climate Change Emergency.

The Labour Party is committed to ending austerity and transforming our public services. Labour will give the NHS the money it needs. This includes £10 billion of capital funding to make sure that NHS buildings and IT systems are fit for the modern world. Instead of ignoring climate change, Labour have committed a £250 billion National Transformation Fund and £250 billion National Invest Bank, both of which will have tackling the climate emergency at their core.